Hi guys,
I've recently returned to the game and a few of my friends and I are re-learning via the SK method and then gradually adding additional chunks of the full rules as I learn it.
We started out playing some of the SK2 scenarios, but when we progressed to SK3, we were kind of stumped. All the scenarios that looked interesting to us tended to have quite a few vehicles. We just wanted something with a few basic vehicles to get the hang of their capabilities within the rules. Sooo, I busted out the full ASLRB and we threw together a map config, some VCs, a time limit and some point values. Both side picked their forces and we played and had a blast.
Based on that experience, I started looking around here to see what other people's thoughts on the DYO system was and I didnt see anything under discussion. Does that mean its a 'taboo' subject that 'real' ASLers dont tend to play?
If anyone DOES play it, what do you tend to do? Blind pick of forces? Create one side and then bid for the other? Anything else?
Does anyone have any input on whether the points tend to create 'balanced' games? My question springs from the 'allocated' SWs based on year. When we played last night, we rolled 1945, so the German squads were quite pricey (13 for a Line Rifle squad compared to 7 for a Line Russian squad). Despite that, the Germans won handily (the Russians had their gun break on a T34/85 and had other issues, including a German HMG that seemed to never lose RoF...). But that got us to looking at the prices and if that very same battle had taken place in 1943, the Russians would have been in a world more of hurt. Their SWs would have been severely reduced and the German squads would have been considerably cheaper (10 vice 13). Considering the Germans never even got NEAR position with which to use a PF, that +3BPV/squad was essentially 'wasted' points.
So is there any form of balancing mechanism in place that we might have missed? I mean, the Russians in 43 are significantly weaker than the Russian in other years, yet their MMCs still cost the same. I'm sure there are plenty of other 'break points' for each nationality.
Anyways, I'll grant you that ASL doesnt exactly seem like the type of game to just 'each side pick and army and deathmatch it out', but I would have expected it to have a little more in the way of 'safeguards' for balance given how meticulous everything else in the system is.
Anyone have any input on the DYO system? Is it something just better used to pre-prepare a scenario and use it as a rough guide or is it robust enough to handle 'pick and play' style games without much issue?
Thanks!
I've recently returned to the game and a few of my friends and I are re-learning via the SK method and then gradually adding additional chunks of the full rules as I learn it.
We started out playing some of the SK2 scenarios, but when we progressed to SK3, we were kind of stumped. All the scenarios that looked interesting to us tended to have quite a few vehicles. We just wanted something with a few basic vehicles to get the hang of their capabilities within the rules. Sooo, I busted out the full ASLRB and we threw together a map config, some VCs, a time limit and some point values. Both side picked their forces and we played and had a blast.
Based on that experience, I started looking around here to see what other people's thoughts on the DYO system was and I didnt see anything under discussion. Does that mean its a 'taboo' subject that 'real' ASLers dont tend to play?
If anyone DOES play it, what do you tend to do? Blind pick of forces? Create one side and then bid for the other? Anything else?
Does anyone have any input on whether the points tend to create 'balanced' games? My question springs from the 'allocated' SWs based on year. When we played last night, we rolled 1945, so the German squads were quite pricey (13 for a Line Rifle squad compared to 7 for a Line Russian squad). Despite that, the Germans won handily (the Russians had their gun break on a T34/85 and had other issues, including a German HMG that seemed to never lose RoF...). But that got us to looking at the prices and if that very same battle had taken place in 1943, the Russians would have been in a world more of hurt. Their SWs would have been severely reduced and the German squads would have been considerably cheaper (10 vice 13). Considering the Germans never even got NEAR position with which to use a PF, that +3BPV/squad was essentially 'wasted' points.
So is there any form of balancing mechanism in place that we might have missed? I mean, the Russians in 43 are significantly weaker than the Russian in other years, yet their MMCs still cost the same. I'm sure there are plenty of other 'break points' for each nationality.
Anyways, I'll grant you that ASL doesnt exactly seem like the type of game to just 'each side pick and army and deathmatch it out', but I would have expected it to have a little more in the way of 'safeguards' for balance given how meticulous everything else in the system is.
Anyone have any input on the DYO system? Is it something just better used to pre-prepare a scenario and use it as a rough guide or is it robust enough to handle 'pick and play' style games without much issue?
Thanks!